


One Day

by voices_in_my_head



Category: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: spoilers for the new movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-02-03 00:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1724840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"In the end, Erik decides not to go to Peter but to Magda."</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Day

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the new movie. This had absolutely nothing to do with the comics, since I barely know them.

_“My mom used to know a guy that could control metal.”_

When the young man, Peter, had said it, Erik hadn't really thought about it. He didn't think “that could be me” or “there's somebody else in the world with my powers”. He just didn't think about it.

Charles had just helped to free him from prison, punching him afterward, which okay, was deserving, and there was a mutant that he'd never seen before and a kid had just saved him. A kid that obviously had way too much energy.

Erik hadn't thought of the part about the kid's mom knowing a guy that could control metal. Instead, he'd thought “poor woman” because raising Peter could not have been easy. That had been the only thought he'd had before they were in a car and he was being explained about time-traveling and how there were going to be giant robots in the future that were going to kill them all and stopping Raven from killing Trask was apparently all they needed to do to stop this future from happening.

Then they're in a plane and he and Charles are screaming and the plane is shaking and the kid was left behind so why would he think any more about him? Yes, he's thankful, so maybe once this is over he'll send him a card but that's it.

Then the White House happens and he almost kills the president and he can hear Emma's voice in his head making jokes about him not leaving the US presidents alone and he feels sad and angry because she's dead, they're all dead, and there are no more jokes to be heard.

Erik leaves the United States. Firstly, he goes to Spain, to a little restaurant that Janos had talked about all the time. Then he goes to Russia, to visit a theater that is barely holding up but that Azazel had had a passion for. He goes to China because Angel had always wanted to go. He goes to Ireland because even tough he never met Banshee before he died, he still wants to pay his respects.

He was just a kid. They were all kids. It's unfair that he gets to be alive when they don't.

The cars start to shake around him and Erik forces himself to relax. The anger is still there, it will always be there but there's sadness too and Erik isn't sure how to deal with it.

Thinking about Banshee reminds him of Peter and how he never got to say thank you and he decides that a visit would be better than a simple card. The kid did break him out of prison, after all.

There are more Peter Maximoff in the US than he expected but only few have police records and only one's mother is called Magda and oh.

“My mom used to know a guy that could control metal” and mein Gott, he's so stupid. Peter is Magda's kid. Peter is his kid and oh God, he has a kid. How does he have a kid?

He's starting to panic. When he panics, he becomes hysteric. The last time that happened was... he doesn't remember but he's sure it had something to do with Shaw.

Erik has a kid. A kid who has the ability to move if not at the speed of light, then as close to it as any mutant will ever get to and he's also really annoying.

Erik gets his address and watches his house for a few days. Peter leaves with his mother, Magda, who looks as beautiful as always and a little girl, who is probably his sister but this one Erik is sure isn't his because he was only with Magda for six months.

_“I'm not a good man,” he says, when they're laying down. He's looking at Madga, who has her blond hair all over the place and is looking at their linked hands with a hard stare. She's beautiful._

_She doesn't answer and Erik wants to repeat himself because she needs to know this. She needs to understand it._

_“What do you want me to do about it?” She finally asks, looking at him with those brown eyes that make him feel like he's the most important thing in the whole world._

_“I don't know. Throw me out.”_

_She sighs and sits up. He doesn't follow her example, instead continuing to lay down, looking up to her._

_“You're not a bad man, Erik. You're... a broken man but it's all right,” Madga shrugs, “we're all a little broken. You're just a bit more than most,” she looks down to him. “That doesn't make you a bad man.”_

_“I've done bad things.”_

_“To bad people. I know you'd never hurt a human.”_

_That's a lie, Erik wants to say because he knows himself and in his quest for Shaw he will kill innocents if he has to know. He knows this and he wants to tell Magda that, except what if she believes him and decides that her life would be better without him? Erik would understand, of course, but it doesn't mean he wants it. Magda is special. She doesn't just see him as a broken man. She sees him as somebody that can still be mended, something he doesn't see in himself._

_He grabs her hand and kisses her knuckles._

_“You're a great woman,” he says and that at least, is true._

In the end, Erik decides not to go to Peter but to Magda.

One day, when the kids are at school and she's alone in the house he walks the steps to her door and knocks. He doesn't remember the last time he was this nervous.

“Hello, how-” her smile freezes and quickly leaves her face.

“Magda,” he says and hopes his voice isn't shaking.

“Erik,” she says his name in a breath, like she has just run a marathon.

They stand looking at each other for a some moments. She looks older, as he's sure he does too, but she's still one of the most beautiful women he has ever seen. Her eyes look as hard as they ever did and there are lines around them, but he sees that most are laughter ones. She looks happy.

“Erik,” she repeats his name and once upon a time it was like a mantra for him. “You tried to kill the president. You killed the last president.”

“I didn't,” he says and it's true.

She sighs. “It doesn't actually make a difference. Maybe you didn't serve the time for the right crime, but let's not pretend you didn't deserve it. I guess I was wrong,” she says and he immediately knows she's talking about the time she said he wasn't a bad man and it hurts hearing that but she's right. She always was.

“Why are you here?”

“Peter,” is the only word that comes out of Erik's mouth. He's not sure how to continue. “He got me out of prison and I want to thank him”? “I know that he's my son”?

“You know,” Magda says and she looks tired and for a second Erik wishes he had Charles power, so that he could erase the last few minutes from her mind and that he could disappear without a trace.

But he doesn't have Charles powers and this is the decision he made and now he has to deal with the consequences.

“Well, I guess you should come in,” she says and steps aside.

He walks inside and she doesn't use the same perfume she used to almost twenty years before, but there's still a smell under it that is the same and his heart is beating faster.

He sits on the sofa while she sits on a highchair.

“Why didn't you tell me?” Erik asks in a small voice.

“I was going to. But you said you were leaving.”

“If you'd told me-”

“You'd still have left. And even if you hadn't, you would have been miserable.”

“I wouldn't-”

“Maybe not with me. Maybe not with having a son, but you would have never been able to simple let go of your demons. I always admired your persistence, Erik, but you have to admit you're not exactly the best role model for a little kid.”

_Erik came to America because there had been rumors about Schmidt being around. He'd never been to the country before and he felt lost but tried not to show it._

_He met Magda and in a different life he knows he could have loved her. Hell, in this life he still loves her, just not how she deserves to be loved._

_Still, he tries his utmost to be the man she deserves but in the end six months go by and it's the happiest he's ever been but it's still not enough. Schmidt is still around and Erik knows that he won't just be able to play house and forget about the man that killed his mother and tortured him._

_“I'm leaving,” he tells her one night, when they're laying in bed and it's in that position that they always have their most important conversations. Mostly in whispers and Erik has told Magda more than he ever thought he would share with anyone._

_“I know,” she answers and he's hurt by the fact that she's not surprised._

_“It's not you,” he says and she gives a small smile, with those beautiful eyes looking at him and kisses his lips._

_“I know. You're an amazing man, Erik.” She puts a finger on his lips when he opens his mouth to protest. “You truly are, Erik. I wish you'll see that one day.”_

_He doesn't answer and she snuggles up to him. He falls asleep listening to her heartbreak and there's a part of him that doesn't want to leave in the morning. A really big part. But he has made his choice._

“Did you ever find him? Schmidt?” She asks after a few more minutes in silence.

“I did. He's dead,” he says it mostly to see her reaction. She barely moves.

“I'm not happy that you killed someone but... I hope you got the closure you needed.”

He gives her a smile, different from the ones he used to give her years before. This one is full of teeth.

“Closure... I don't think that's a word that will ever be applied to me.”

Magda gives him a sad smile and it looks exactly as it did all those years before.

“Why are you here?”

“I have a son I didn't know about.”

“So, what? You want to be a father now?” She mostly sounds curious but there's also a hardness there and Erik always knew she was going to be a fantastic mother.

“I...” he stops and breathes. “I don't know. I just...”

“You're not his father, Erik. He had a father. His name was David and I married him when Peter was two and David raised him. David taught him to read and played with him and helped him with his powers. He loved Peter just as much as he did his own daughter. David was his father.”

“Was?” Erik asks in a small voice.

“He died in the Vietnam war.”

“I'm sorry,” Erik says but keeps silent after that.

Magda looks at him like there's something she wants to tell him and he knows the feeling. There are so many things they could tell each other.

“You're right. I'm not his father. I... I don't know why I'm here.”

She touches his hand. “I think you're a bit lost.”

“I always have been, haven't I?” He asks with a small smile, one that he learned from her except this one isn't accompanied by glinting eyes.

She holds a bit tighter. “If you want to meet him, you can. I won't stop you. Just... please don't take him away. I can't bury him too.”

He has buried so many friends. He feels a tear leaving his eye and he quickly cleans it away with the hand that isn't holding Magda's. When he looks at her she's a bit teary as well.

“I won't. I promise.”

They keep holding hands and in a different lifetime he could have had all this. He could have married Magda, been a father to Peter, maybe even have other kids. But he made a different choice and he doesn't regret it. Not really. He just wishes he had been able to choose differently.


End file.
